mno86
I love animals - the simple joy they have in just "being" around us is something wonderful to come home to after a hard day of dealing with people, who, by a complex and cruel misfortune, are not always quite so simple.
I adopted my first cat my sophomore year in college. I lived alone (and preferred it that way), but wanted to enjoy the company of something more affectionate than a goldfish, so along came Lucky. A few years later, I adopted Kitty because I started working full-time and wanted my adult cat to have company. I suppose by most conventional wisdom, I would be a 'cat lady'. I fought this label for years, but have since learned to embrace it. Living alone downtown in a metro, being gone for 9 hours a day - doesn't seem fair to have a dog.
That said, I never counted myself as someone who would read 'cat books'. When I saw this pop up on my recommendations (what are you trying to say, Amazon?), I picked it up for my Paperwhite and can honestly say I finished in two days. It was that good.
It's hard not to love stories like these, but few of us could actually say we would be willing to take the extra time needed to care for a pet with a disability, and this was the case for Homer, who was nearly put to sleep before ever having a chance at life because he had to lose his eyes in order to live and no one wanted him- there's unfair irony buried in there.
Along came Gwen, who with two cats of her own, took on the burden, but quickly found herself amazed by Homer's abilities despite his lack of vision. Some of her stories were slightly far-fetched and there was frequent personification of Homer which I found a bit distracting, but Cooper has a real knack for writing, and it was very clear that Homer was a special cat - and they both needed each other.
Some have knocked Cooper for writing too much about herself and not Homer, but I found this one of the better parts of the book. We don't often think we learn things from our pet, but Cooper's adventures with Homer clearly taught her a lot about her life, her values, and her priorities. She had many poignant, memorable quotes throughout this book (which I'll let you discover for yourself), and it was an extremely heart-warming account, filled with several anxiety-laden moments. I seriously couldn't put it down.
Since reading this, I've done some research on Homer. Cooper has raised attention to the plight of thousands of disabled animals around the country, and donated even more to these charities, often inspiring others to make room in their life for an animal that has an infinite amount of love to give, but was never given a chance because at the end of the day, looks matter.
At the risk of sounding like a cat lady, I became extremely attached to Cooper and her three cats in this book, which made the sequel a lot harder to read (for obvious reasons). The frequent photos of Homer and Cooper's other two cats heading each chapter were an excellent addition.
Overpersonification or not, Cooper's way with words and telling both an internal and external story about a little cat that defied everyone's expectations, as well as her own story, makes this an absolute must-read for anyone who loves animals. I'd encourage dog-lovers out there to give this book a chance, as well.
It is absolutely no wonder this book ended up on the New York Times Best Seller list. It is engaging, warm, frightening, heart-felt, and well-written to the point that I couldn't put it down. Thank you Gwen, for not only sharing Homer with the rest of the world, but for taking a chance on him when no one else would. He was truly a remarkable cat.
"...we love them [animal stories] because they're the closest thing we have to material evidence of an objective moral order...they seem to prove that the things that matter to and move us the most--things like love, courage, loyalty, altruism--aren't just ideas we made up from nothing. To see them demonstrated in other animals proves they're real things, that they exist in the world independently of what humans invent and tell each other in the form of myth or fable."
Imported From: Amazon